Test Drive: 2014 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe

After three days in the 2014 Aventador LP 700-4 Coupe I pulled into Toronto Uptown Lamborghini. An inexplicable sense of relief washed over my being. Never, EVER, has my old red GTI looked so… inviting. Like a big plate of mashed potatoes. Safe. Comforting. My V-0 was not going to lure me to the dark side at every turn. It did not have a banshee 700-hp V12 that revved to the heavens. It wasn’t going to whisper, “C’mon. One more time. This road is dead straight. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Do me, you insignificant slice of mangiacake!”

Forgive me Father…

The previous 60 or so hours had been action packed beyond belief. This white wedge of wickedness burned through over 200 bucks of premium and had taken at least a couple dozen folks for a ride they’ll never forget. It concurrently elevated me to the status of both benevolent hero and pathetic rich prick. Fantastic.

I wouldn’t have traded this experience for the world, but gosh I was glad to be done with the Lambo. Not least because I had just endured over an hour of stop-and-go traffic, which is pure misery in this car.

How do you spell relief? $575,000 Lambo returned unscathed. Auto writer not in jail.

Introduced at the 2011 Geneva Auto Show, the Aventador is the fifth top-dog V12 mid-engined Lambo – the first being the Miura produced from 1966–73. Then came the Countach, Diablo and Murcielago before this angular wedge.

The Aventador is a clean-sheet vehicle, drawn by in-house stylist Centro Stile. The tub (including the roof) is carbon fibre, as is the rear deck lid. The remaining body panels are mostly plastic composite. While its roof line may be no higher than the family jewels, the Lambo’s arse is broader than that of a GMC Yukon.

It pretty much has to be, as the 6.5L naturally aspirated V12 takes up quite a bit of real estate. This is the first all-new Lamborghini V12 in almost 50 years – and what a corker. While most car makers are chasing reduced emissions and better fuel economy with smaller displacement turbo motors, Lambo cranks out a new bent-twelve that flips the bird at all that mundane stuff.

Its short-stroke architecture equates to stratospheric revs. The 700-hp peak arrives at 8,250 rpm while max torque of 507 lb-ft shows up at 5,500 rpm. The wail it makes while heading to the redline will effectively obscure the shrieks of your shocked passengers. And to be honest, I never even checked out the $4,800 “Sensonum” audio because, well…

Of course, my three-day tryst with this virtuous white witch did not start out with pedal-to-the-metal antics. You might say I was a tad cautious at first.

The counterbalanced scissor doors are fingertip light to operate but there is no graceful way to get across the wide door sill and into the buckets seats. Feet first works best for me – some sit down side-saddle and then swing the legs in. Either way, once ensconced in the cozy cabin your butt is inches from the asphalt and you’re peering up at the world through a windshield that is closer to the horizontal than vertical. Decent headroom, although rearward visibility is a joke. I give thanks to the optional $5,600 back-up camera with front and rear park assist. Consider this an essential outlay if you are in the market.